Languages spoken in Italy: map, families and speakers

Languages of Italy at a glance

41living languages
2language families
61 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
12with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Italy. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

The 40 most widely spoken languages in Italy

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

Language	Family	Share of population	Estimated speakers	Status
Italian	Indo-European	95%	57,916,655	Not endangered
English	Indo-European	34%	20,728,066	Not endangered
French	Indo-European	20%	12,192,980	Not endangered
Lombard	Indo-European	5.7%	3,474,999	Not endangered
German	Indo-European	1.6%	975,438	Not endangered
Venetian	Indo-European	1.3%	792,544	Threatened
Piemontese	Indo-European	1.1%	670,614	Threatened
Continental Southern Italian	Indo-European	1%	591,360	Threatened
Ligurian	Indo-European	0.9%	524,298	Shifting
Sicilian	Indo-European	0.8%	499,912	Threatened
Sassarese Sardinian	Indo-European	0.2%	103,640	Not endangered
Slovenian	Indo-European	0.2%	103,640	Not endangered
Apulian-Calabrian Greek	Indo-European			Moribund
Arbëreshë Albanian	Indo-European			Threatened
Arpitan	Indo-European			Shifting
Balkan Romani	Indo-European			Not endangered
Bavarian	Indo-European			Threatened
Campidanese Sardinian	Indo-European			Threatened
Catalan	Indo-European			Threatened
Central Alemannic	Indo-European			Threatened
Central Romani	Indo-European			Not endangered
Cimbrian	Indo-European			Shifting
Corsican	Indo-European			Not endangered
Emiliano	Indo-European			Shifting
Faeto and Celle San Vito Francoprovencal	Indo-European			Shifting
Friulian	Indo-European			Threatened
Gallurese Sardinian	Indo-European			Not endangered
Gardiol	Indo-European			Moribund
Judeo-Italian	Indo-European			Moribund
Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic	Afro-Asiatic			Threatened
Ladin	Indo-European			Shifting
Logudorese Sardinian	Indo-European			Shifting
Modern Greek	Indo-European			Not endangered
Mòcheno	Indo-European			Shifting
Occitan	Indo-European			Not endangered
Romagnol	Indo-European			Shifting
Romansh	Indo-European			Threatened
Sinte-Manus Romani	Indo-European			Not endangered
Slavomolisano	Indo-European			Shifting
Vlax Romani	Indo-European			Not endangered

Language families in Italy

Indo-European (40 languages)
Afro-Asiatic (1 language)

All 41 languages in Italy, A to Z

About these numbers

The list of languages in Italy comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Italy

How many languages are spoken in Italy?

41 living languages are mapped in Italy, from 2 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Italy?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Italian is spoken by 95% of the population, about 57,916,655 people, followed by English (34%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Italy?

Indo-European (40 languages) and Afro-Asiatic (1 language).